Adoption of Rational Farming Technology for Development of a Model for Exploring Sustainable Farming Practice in Farmer’s Field

The effectivity of Inhana Rational Farming (IRF) Technology was critically evaluated as a model of Sustainable Farming Practice in farmers’ field using okra (variety : Shakti - F1 hybrid) as test crop. The stusy was conducted at Binuria village in Birbhum District of West Bengal during February to October (2013). The village is in close vicinity of Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. The study area lies in 23.660 N and 87.630E at about 179 ft. above MSL, with level to nearly level landscape. The experiment was laid down as per randomized block design (RBD) with 7 treatments replicated 3 times. The treatments included local farming practice with chemical inputs, organic farming practice (Inhana Rational Farming (IRF) Technology’ developed by Dr. P. Das Biswas, Founder, Inhana Biosciences, Kolkata) as well as integrated farming practice (combination of chemical and organic inputs for both soil and plant management). The most significant finding was that 100% reduction of chemical pesticide can be economically viable in the very first year with adoption of IRF Organic Package of Practice, under which 13.6% yield increase was recorded as compared to conventional farmer’s practice. Also when IRF was adopted for integrated cultivation model, higher yield as well as higher net income was obtained in comparison to conventional Farmer’s practice. Upto 144.5% higher Nitrogen Utilization efficiency and 32.8 % higher partial factor productivity was recorded under treatments with IRF Package. This higher response might be due to increased uptake and utilization of indigenous nutrients under the influence of high quality Novcom compost containing huge population (in order of 1016 c.f.u per gm moist compost) of self- generated microbes, which led to better nutrient (both macro and micro) mineralization in soil for plant uptake. This was also complimented by IRF Plant Management Package, which perhaps enhanced plant physiological functioning in terms of better N uptake and its utilization within plants

Adoption of Inhana Rational Farming (IRF) Technology as an Organic Package of Practice towards Improvement of Nutrient Use Efficiency of Camellia Sinensis through Energization of Plant Physiological Functioning

The effectivity of Inhana Rational Farming (IRF) Technology towards energization of plant physiological functioning was evaluated in comparison to other organic packages of Practice under FAO-CFC-TBI Project at Maud Tea Estate, Dibrugarh, Assam, India during 2008 to 2013. The study area lies in 27.26. N latitude and 95.12 E longitude covering a total area of 154.58 ha area with level to nearly level landscape. The experiment was laid down as per randomized block design (RBD) with 8 treatments replicated 3 times. The treatments included available two organic methods viz. Biodynamic Farming (BD) and Inhana Rational Farming (IRF) (developed by Dr. P. Das Biswas, Founder, Inhana Biosciences, Kolkata) as well as organic inputs viz. vermicompost, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, herbal formulations which are used in organic tea gardens in India on large scale. The organic inputs selected for evaluation were combined to form different ‘Packages of Practice’ based on scientific rationale. The different packages were : Biodynamic (BD) with Biodynamic compost, Conventional Organic Practice with Indigenous compost @ 13.5 ton/ha (CO), Inhana Rational Farming Tech-nology with 8 ton Novcom Compost (IRF-2), Inhana Rational Farming Technology with 5.1 ton Novcom Compost (IRF-4), Vermi-compost @ 9.4 ton/ha + Conventional Organic Practice (VCO), Vermicompost @ 9.4 ton/ha + Microbial Formulations for both soil and plant management (VMI), Vermicompost @ 9.4 ton/ha + Microbial Formulations for only plant management i.e. Bio-pesticides+ Bio-growth promoter (VMIP). Agronomic Efficiency (NUE), which among other factors depends upon the nutrient uptake and utilization efficiency of plant or con-versely the state of plant physiology was assessed to score the different organic packages as per N expensed for unit crop production. Highest NUE was obtained under IRF packages followed by VMI, VMIP and VCO. The highest crop yield along with high NUE under IRF-2 indicated an effective management approach towards activation of plant physiology. But the most significant finding was that there was a considerable enhancement of nutrient use efficiency under the treatment plots which received total package of practice(ie. both plant and soil management) in comparison to the plots which received only the soil management part of the same package of practice (12.35 to 93.77 % increase). The results indicated towards a definitive role of organic plant management w.r.t. enhancement of the plant physiological functioning. While the agronomic efficiency was found highest in both soil management as well as complete package under IRF technology but also the percent change in agronomic efficiency (total package vs. only soil management part of the same package) was highest in case of IRF package of practice. This indicated positive impact of IRF plant management programme towards plant physiological functioning leading to higher crop response

Morphology, Stability, Structure, and CO2-Surface Chemistry of Micelle Nanolithographically Prepared Two-Dimensional Arrays of Core-Shell Fe-Pd Multicomponent Nanoparticles

We have employed micelle nanolithography technique to achieve two-dimensional (2D) arrays of Fe-Pd multicomponent core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) in a quasi-hexagonal lattice. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy together confirm that high temperature annealing (similar to 900 K) renders core-shell architecture in which metallic Pd phase adopts the core and Fe-Pd mixed oxide phase adopts the shell. The mixed Fe-Pd oxide shell closely resembles a Pd-doped alpha-Fe2O3 structure. Finally, temperature-programmed desorption measurement explores the surface chemistry of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the Fe-Pd multicomponent nanoparticle surfaces. This surface chemistry has been explored on atomically clean Fe-Pd multicomponent NP surfaces under the ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Cleanliness of the NP surfaces is confirmed with the help of auger electron spectroscopy. We find that Fe-Pd multicomponent core shell nanoparticles capture CO2 at the room temperature; however, on the contrary, corresponding single component analogue nanoparticles fabricated following the same procedure do not capture CO2 at the room temperature. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the morphology, stability, structure, and CO2 surface chemistry of well-characterized supported Fe-Pd multicomponent core-shell nanoparticles

Femtosecond Laser-Induced Recombinative O + O = O-2 Reaction on Single Crystal Pd(100) Surface Requires Thermal Assistance

The process of recombinative desorption of molecular oxygen (O-adsorbed + O-adsorbed = O-2,O-gas) from the Pd(100) single crystal surface, under femtosecond laser irradiation, has been investigated with the help of pre- and postradiation temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) measurements. This femtosecond optical pulse-induced surface chemistry is found to depend strongly on the initial surface temperature. The threshold temperature is observed to be 400 K, above which this reaction remains active for the absorbed fluence of 2.86 mJ/cm(2). Furthermore, the desorption-yield is observed to be linear with respect to the absorbed fluence. We explain our observations with the help of combined two-temperature model simulation and density functional theory-based computations. A two-step mechanism for the femtosecond optical pulse-induced recombinative desorption of molecular oxygen is evident: the first step involves the hot electron-mediated activation of the oxygen atoms and the second step involves the thermal activation (phonon-mediated) of the oxygen atoms leading to the recombination of oxygen atoms to form molecular oxygen which immediately desorbs from the Pd(100) surface. This is the first report on the femtosecond optical pulse-induced recombinative surface chemistry of adsorbed oxygen atoms on the Pd single crystal surface

Electronically nonadiabatic decomposition mechanisms of clusters of zinc and dimethylnitramine

Electronically nonadiabatic decomposition mechanisms of dimethylnitramine (DMNA) in presence of zinc metal clusters are explored. Complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) calculation is employed for DMNA-Zn and ONIOM (Our own N-layered integrated molecular orbital and molecular mechanics) methodology is coupled with CASSCF methodology for DMNA-Zn-10 cluster. Present computational results show that DMNA-Zn clusters undergo electronically nonadiabatic reactions, rendering nitro-nitrite isomerization followed by NO elimination. The overall reactions are also found to be highly exothermic in nature. This is the first report on electronically nonadiabatic decomposition pathways of DMNA-Zn-n neutral clusters. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Ab initio multiple spawning dynamics study of dimethylnitramine and dimethylnitramine-Fe complex to model their ultrafast nonadiabatic chemistry

Conical intersections are now firmly established to be the key features in the excited electronic state processes of polyatomic energetic molecules. In the present work, we have explored conical intersection-mediated nonadiabatic chemical dynamics of a simple analogue nitramine molecule, dimethylnitramine (DMNA, containing one N-NO2 energetic group), and its complex with an iron atom (DMNA-Fe). For this task, we have used the ab initio multiple spawning (AIMS) dynamics simulation at the state averaged-complete active space self-consistent field(8,5)/6-31G(d) level of theory. We have found that DMNA relaxes back to the ground (S-0) state following electronic excitation to the S-1 excited state which is an (n, pi*) excited state] with a time constant of approximately 40 fs. This AIMS result is in very good agreement with the previous surface hopping-result and femtosecond laser spectroscopy result. DMNA does not dissociate during this fast internal conversion from the S1 to the S0 state. DMNA-Fe also undergoes extremely fast relaxation from the upper S1 state to the S0 state; however, this relaxation pathway is dissociative in nature. DMNA-Fe undergoes initial Fe-O, N-O, and N-N bond dissociations during relaxation from the upper S1 state to the ground S0 state through the respective conical intersection. The AIMS simulation reveals the branching ratio of these three channels as N-N:Fe-O:N-O = 6:3:1 (based on 100 independent simulations). Furthermore, the AIMS simulation reveals that the Fe-O bond dissociation channel exhibits the fastest (time constant 24 fs) relaxation, while the N-N bond dissociation pathway features the slowest (time constant 128 fs) relaxation. An intermediate time constant (30 fs) is found for the N-O bond dissociation channel. This is the first nonadiabatic chemical dynamics study of metal-contained energetic molecules through conical intersections. Published by AIP Publishing

Palladium-catalysed regioselective aroylation and acetoxylation of 3,5-diarylisoxazole via ortho C–H functionalisations

The higher directing ability of N over O in 3,5-diarylisoxazole is demonstrated during the construction of C–C and C–O bonds. Out of the four ortho sp² C–Hs and one internal sp² C–H in 3,5-diarylisoxazoles, regioselective aroylation and acetoxylation take place at one of the ortho-C–Hs proximal to the N atom using Pd(OAc)₂ as the catalyst in the presence of suitable oxidants and solvents